Re: Tech Writer's Duties

[Sarah Stegall <stegall -at- TERAYON -dot- COM>]

Last time I went job hunting, I was told by one
interviewer that a "Senior Technical Writer" MUST
have at least ten years experience as a tech
writer to earn that title.  I wonder how many
writers here would agree with him. I don't.  :)

My present company considers a Senior Tech Writer
to be someone who more or less takes on an entire
project and documents it with little or no
supervision and very little help from other
writers. One company I worked for graded technical
writers according to how many projects they had
worked on independently, although this made it a
bit hard to evaluate team efforts.  The common
element seems to be: have you worked for five
years revising the same manual over and over, or
have you handled several widely divergent projects
in a short time?  I find employers most interested
in someone who has brought several projects to
completion in a reasonable period of time, rather
than simple longevity in the field.

But hey, I'm a young whippersnapper. :)  What do I
know?

Ginny Ruppe wrote:
>
> I need help in determing what different levels of tech writers do. For
> example, what does a Junior Technical Writer do that is different from an
> entry-level Tech Writer? What is the difference between a Junior Technical
> Writer and a Mid-Technical Writer? And then what is the difference between
> a Mid-Technical Writer and a Senior Technical Writer?
>

--
Sarah Stegall                 ||  Senior Technical
Writer
Terayon Communication Systems ||
stegall -at- terayon -dot- com
2952 Bunker Hill Lane         ||  voice
408-919-5893
Santa Clara, CA 95054         ||  fax 408-727-6204


 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=